Grants & Opportunities

Engineering safer pastures for livestock. This project aims to develop subterranean clover with elevated condensed tannins in leaves. This important pasture legume is currently a bloat risk for cattle and sheep due to low condensed tannins and high soluble proteins. Bloat is a health issue that costs the Australian and New Zealand livestock industries over $200 million per annum. Condensed tannins can reduce bloat, decrease methane production and improve efficiency of production. A novel approach using CRISPR and other innovative molecular techniques will generate breeding lines high in condensed tannins and deliver knowledge applicable to other pasture legumes. Expected outcomes for livestock producers include improved animal welfare, reduced carbon emissions and enhanced profits.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1001 - Agricultural Biotechnology. Lead: Prof Jacqueline Batley

Promoting active travel and public transport for a post-pandemic world. In many major cities, COVID-19 stimulated the provision of open streets, pop up bike lanes and widened pedestrian access, prompting unprecedented increases cycling and walking. While this type of infrastructure has always been supported by urban planners and designers, the pandemic has served as a vital inflection point, enabling cities to pursue long-term sustainable transport initiatives, including investment in Active Travel (AT). There is an opportunity to promote AT as part of an integrated transport strategy, and to develop tools for the robust evaluation of AT impacts to inform future investment strategies. This proposal will provide our partner organisation Transport for New South Wales (with the knowledge required to achieve this. . Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 1205 - Urban and Regional Planning. Lead: Prof John Nelson

Rare Earth Metal Separation by Polymer Inclusion Membranes. The project aims to develop a novel hydrometallurgical method for the separation of the rare earth metals dysprosium and terbium from mixed rare earth metal solutions using polymer inclusion membranes with a crosslinked or non-crosslinked polymer backbone. These metals are crucial for the manufacturing of advanced technology products. The membrane-based method is expected to offer significant advantages over the currently used solvent extraction methods by eliminating the use of solvents and conducting the separation as a continuous process where the extraction and back-extraction steps take place simultaneously. These advantages are expected to make the separation process more cost-effective and drastically reduce its environmental impact.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0904 - Chemical Engineering. Lead: Prof Spas Kolev

Engineered clay-polysaccharide composites for efficient nutrient delivery. Nitrogen (N) nutrient use efficiency of most arable crops in Australian soils is low, leading to excessive application of this nutrient. The low N use efficiency is attributed to its loss through leaching and gaseous emission, which contributes to both economic burden of the farming community and also results in environmental degradation. This project aims to work with clay industries to develop fertiliser products with controlled release characteristics to increase N use efficiency and farm productivity. It will also create new market opportunities for the mining industry for the use of clays and create novel materials for delivery of nutrients and moisture for the agrochemical industry resulting in the creation of marketing opportunities.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0703 - Crop and Pasture Production. Lead: Prof Ajayan Vinu

Knowledge discovery and recommendation of multimedia data in healthcare. The project aims to develop tools to abstract/streamline the ever-growing information-rich multimedia contents into easily discoverable knowledges. Advanced multimedia knowledge graph will be first time developed to accurately exploit hidden knowledge for health industry, and served to generate right information recommendation for healthcare professionals (HCP) at the right time. The proposed technology will improve HCPs' communication, keep them up to date, and enhance their speedy reaction to constantly changing situations/diseases, thus reducing poor patient outcomes and unnecessary hospital costs. It will make significant impact to a range of industries, e.g. healthcare, where personalised professional recommendation is demanded.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0801 - Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing. Lead: Prof Min Xu

Breakthrough technologies in implantable bionics. This project aims to introduce revolutionary changes in implantable bionics via miniaturisation, automation and improved reliability and generating new knowledge by leveraging recent advances in laser processes. Expected outcomes include innovative hybrid thin-film/thick-film electrode arrays with more channels and charge-carrying capacity for neuromodulation; novel glass interfaces that facilitate deeply-miniaturised hermetic packages; and failure analysis to ensure study aims result in new processes that are as or more reliable than the current state-of-the-art. This work will create new and novel manufacturing processes, and trains the next generation of innovators equipped with the tools to advance implantable bionics into the future.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0910 - Manufacturing Engineering. Lead: Prof Gregg Suaning

Wearable thermoelectric textiles for portable microelectronics. Wearable thermoelectrics enable the power generation from the temperature difference between human body and ambient temperature by using thermoelectric effect. This project aims to design eco-friendly wearable thermoelectric textiles to realize high-efficiency solid-state power generation and meet individual needs with human comfort and health. The target is to achieve a power density in the as-designed thermoelectric textiles by the optimization of materials and device design. The outcome will open up a new platform for the green and sustainable charge for portable microelectronics, which will lead to an innovative technology for energy management, which will place Australia at the forefront of wearable electronics and textile industry.. Scheme: Linkage Projects. Field: 0912 - Materials Engineering. Lead: Prof Zhi-Gang Chen

The Australian Emulation Network: Born Digital Cultural Collections Access. This project aims to conserve and render born digital artefacts widely accessible by establishing an Australian Emulation Network. High value cultural collections from university archives and the GLAM sector requiring legacy computer environments will be targeted. The project expects to generate new knowledge across media arts, design, and architecture. Expected outcomes include stabilising and providing researchers with emulated access to born digital cultural artefacts, sharing legacy computer environments across the network, and establishing an Australian software preservation community of practice, building skills in preserving and emulating digital cultural artefacts with substantial future applications also in scientific preservation.. Scheme: Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities. Field: 1902 - Film, Television and Digital Media. Lead: Prof Melanie Swalwell

Understanding the neural dynamics of integrated perceptual decisions. This project aims to characterise the brain processes involved in perceptual decision-making. While scientists have a good understanding of how people make decisions about the properties of individual sensory inputs, much less is known about how the brain integrates information across multiple sensory sources that differ in their salience and fidelity. The project expects to elucidate the neural mechanisms responsible for these integrative perceptual decisions, using a combination of brain imaging and behavioural measures, computational modelling and real-time neurofeedback. This should provide significant benefits for developing more effective approaches to training individuals in professions that rely on optimal decision-making skills.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: Prof Jason Mattingley

Advanced multivariable nonlinear control methodology for matrix converters. The aim of this project is to explore a specific multivariable nonlinear control design problem. Motivation for the project arises from the control of Matrix Converters. Matrix Converters are considered one of the key enabling technologies for the electric transport of the future. However, their penetration into practice has fallen short of their promise. This is, in part, due to the associated control design problem which is extremely difficult involving coupled nonlinear dynamics and under-actuation. We plan to address these problems by using modern control system design methods. Our specific goal is to achieve a provably stable, closed loop control system whose performance is independent of unmeasured disturbances and model errors.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0906 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Lead: Prof Graham Goodwin

Understanding the impact of heat stress on cognition in a changing world. Our research will determine how anthropogenic climate change effects the ability of animals to process information in their environment. This research is significant because it directly addresses the growing issue of wildlife adaptation to climate change. If heat stress, reported widely in wildlife both in Australia and globally, impairs an animal's ability to respond to stimuli in its surrounding environment, then this may cause lower reproductive success (eg lower predator detection rates) and population declines. We aim to identify critical temperature points beyond which the cognitive responses of animals decline rapidly - a significant finding for effective wildlife management priorities in the face of rapid climate change. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0602 - Ecology. Lead: Prof Amanda Ridley

Anomalous Structural Response in Porous Framework Materials. This project targets a key missing link in understanding the host-guest properties of porous framework materials, namely, the dynamic response of host lattices to their external environment and to the inclusion of molecular guests. By combining advanced chemical, physical and structural measurements the project expects to provide the first concerted picture of materials behaviour across an array of scientific and technological settings, with particular focus given to industrially relevant ‘real world’ conditions. This promises to greatly inform the on-going chemical design, formulation and process engineering of these materials, in turn accelerating their development in gas separation, energy storage and device componentry applications.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0306 - Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural). Lead: Prof Stephen Moggach

Journals in Theory: Practices of Academic Judgment. This project aims to examine the way key journals transformed the discipline of literary studies from 1946 to now. It expects to generate new knowledge of how editorial practices of academic judgement institutionalised and legitimated new modes of reading, thinking and writing. Based on archival research on journals including Critical Inquiry, Tel Quel and The Australian Journal of Cultural Studies, the project's outcomes will show how, in bringing together new intellectual passions, governance structures and imagined readerships, journals bestowed on criticism its current working definition. Expected benefits include a better account of the relationship between conceptual innovation and institutional mechanisms for research integrity.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 2005 - Literary Studies. Lead: Prof Justin Clemens

Making peptides orally bioavailable. Bioactive peptides are exceptionally useful molecules, however to fully realise their exciting applications key limitations need to be overcome: they can't be delivered orally and they do not last long in the body. This project aims to develop a molecular tag that can dramatically enhance both the oral absorption and time in the body of a peptide. This will include identifying the key elements of the tag required for function, the breadth of peptide cargoes it can be applied to and the mechanisms underlying this technology. The outcomes of this project will facilitate the future development of peptides for biotechnology, pharmaceutical and veterinary applications.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0304 - Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry. Lead: A/Prof Richard Clark

Tackling the computational bottleneck in precision particle physics. This project aims to deliver a breakthrough technique in theoretical-computational particle physics, with significant potential for high-precision applications. The project targets some of the most advanced and resource-intensive calculations in particle physics, which are widely used but currently limited by extremely high computational resource requirements. This project expects to develop a novel approach that will vastly reduce the computational complexity while at the same time improving their accuracy relative to the current global state of the art. Expected outcomes include the new methodology itself as well as a full-fledged and open-access simulation code based on it, which should be highly efficient.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0202 - Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics. Lead: Prof Peter Skands

Understanding the survival of forests under drought . Droughts are predicted to become more extreme in the near future, with potentially devastating impacts on Australian forest ecosystems. This project aims to address key knowledge gaps in our understanding of how plants tolerate extreme drought stress and utilise this new knowledge to improve vegetation models suitable for assessing ecosystem vulnerability. We will use innovative experimental methodology to determine the processes by which water transport breaks down in roots, stems and leaves and the mechanisms governing recovery from severe drought stress. The project will provide a deeper understanding of drought tolerance in trees, improved forecasting of risks to native vegetation, and enhanced management of native forest resources. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0602 - Ecology. Lead: Prof Brendan Choat

A novel quantitative risk assessment framework for fractured rock slopes. Rock slope instabilities present grave risks to life and to the serviceability of major Australian infrastructure such as mines, roads and railways, and to coastal recreation areas. This project aims at developing tools for the quantitative risk assessment of fractured rock slopes based on rigorous rock mechanics, numerical methods and probabilistic methods. The research outcomes will improve our understanding of natural and engineering rock slopes, reduce the uncertainties in the prediction of the safety of infrastructures, and thus minimize the loss and damage. The research outcomes can also be used to maintain workplace safety in mining environments and avoid disruptions to production. . Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Jinsong Huang

Towards predictive 4D computational models for the heart. This project aims to develop novel high-performance numerical algorithms for multiscale and multiphysics PDEs with dynamic interfaces, the development and analysis of a novel PDE system modelling the electromechanics of heart and torso, and the combination of these numerical techniques and models to deliver predictive tools for patient-specific simulations of the cardiac function. It involves the design and mathematical analysis of space-time variational discretisations on embedded meshes, 4D computational geometry algorithms for numerical integration and multilevel solvers. By combining scientific computing and machine learning, one anticipated outcome of this research is a new generation of nonlinear PDE approximations and solvers.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0103 - Numerical and Computational Mathematics. Lead: Prof Santiago Badia

The effect of unconventional advocates on public support for climate policy. This project aims to discover whether the presence of unconventional climate advocates in public debate can foster broad-based support for climate policy in Australia. Unconventional advocates include political conservatives, farmers, resource industry workers, and businesspeople. The project expects to generate new knowledge about the role of intersectional social identities in contentious policy debates. Expected outcomes of this project include evidence-based insights on how to reduce social division about climate policy. This should provide significant benefits such as guidance for policy actors for how to overcome social cleavages to implement climate policy, with relevance to other contentious policy domains.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1606 - Political Science. Lead: A/Prof Rebecca Colvin

Enhancing marine bathymetry using new generation satellite sensors. Highly accurate marine bathymetry are currently lacking in 72% of the global ocean including around Australia, particularly in shallow seas and near-shore coastal zones, contributing to various navigation and marine safety accidents. Ship surveys of the seafloor are time-consuming and expensive. Satellite altimetry data provide an alternative solution. This project will improve Australia’s marine bathymetry by using spatially comprehensive and unprecedented data from new radar and laser satellite sensors. We aim to develop techniques for integration of the new data with other independent data sources, producing the most precise marine bathymetry for coastal terrain mapping, marine transport and safety management.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0909 - Geomatic Engineering. Lead: Hon A/Prof Xiaoli Deng

The Role of Energy Absorbing Rubber Grid on Ballast Track Performance. Breakage and excessive displacement of ballast lead to instability and regular maintenance of railways. The project aims to study the fundamental mechanics of ballast aggregates interacting with the apertures of recycled-Rubber Energy Absorbing Grids (REAG). The role of REAG on enhanced track performance by damping the cyclic wheel loading and impact will be quantified via rigorous mathematical methods complementing a computer-based numerical model and validated by laboratory & field data. When placed within the rail substructure REAG will enable reduced ballast movement and breakage while attenuating noise/vibration. The research outputs will facilitate improved rail track design enabling enhanced longevity and reduced cost of maintenance.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0905 - Civil Engineering. Lead: Prof Buddhima Indraratna

The Holocaust as an Australian Story, 1933-1954: An Intimate History. This project intends to explore the connections between Australian and the Holocaust between 1933 and 1954. In doing so, the project will generate new ways of understanding how Jewish families and the community responded to, and actively resisted, Nazi genocide in Europe. Through detailed and micro-historical archival analysis, it will argue that the Holocaust was an event that both touched and changed Australia during a period of immense local transformation. The expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of the personal connections that have existed between parts of Australia's society and victims of genocides worldwide, and a new migrant and family-centred Australian history of the Holocaust.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 2103 - Historical Studies. Lead: A/Prof Jan Lanicek

Circadian photoreceptor sensitivity and impacts of modern lighting on sleep. Light has powerful non-visual effects, including effects on sleep. These non-visual effects are mediated by cells in the eye that are most sensitive to blue light. There are large individual differences in sensitivity to non-visual effects of light that are not understood and that would give great insight into suboptimal sleep, which has become widespread in modern society. This study will be the first systematic examination of individual differences in the effect of blue light on sleep and will uncover how alterations in the gene responsible for the effects of blue light on sleep (OPN4) contribute to these differences. This will lead to scalable individualised solutions to the unmet problem of how modern light environments impact sleep.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 1701 - Psychology. Lead: A/Prof Andrew Phillips

Evolutionary dynamics in deep time: faunal turnover during the Ediacaran. This project aims to investigate the world’s oldest faunal succession in the fossil record by determining the presence and extent of a sedimentary gap and confirming the role of time in the control of fossil distribution. Significant breakthroughs and capacity building are expected in the areas of palaeontology, evolutionary biology and geology using a hitherto unrecognised hiatus in the rock succession. Project outcomes include enhanced understanding of the first animal communities on Earth – these should provide significant benefits, such as revealing Australia's unique record of oldest complex organisms, while bringing additional tourism to the region, and increasing the strength of the Flinders Ranges UNESCO World Heritage nomination.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0403 - Geology. Lead: A/Prof Diego García-Bellido

Channel Coding for Beyond 5G. Significant improvements are required for ICT services if they are to meet the needs of rapid urbanization and industrial transformation while also addressing the current digital divide, which sees half of the world's population currently without sufficient access to the internet. The 6th-generation (6G) of mobile standards will be a key solution to the constantly increasing demands on our communications infrastructure. This project will develop novel communication strategies for 6G to service new applications with requirements way beyond what 5G can achieve. The outcomes of the project are expected to significantly improve users' data rate and enhance the reliability and coverage of mobile networks.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 0804 - Data Format. Lead: A/Prof Mahyar Shirvanimoghaddam